Now with more ads! - Site News - Annoyances
Posted on: 2009-11-23 16:12:09

I have been running ads, or at least an ad, on the site for some time now. I think I first added them in 2005, more as a page analytics thing than an effort to make money. And it is probably a good thing I wasn't shooting for money since in the many years we have been running ads, we have only racked up about $23 (you don't get your first check until you hit $50). But they have shown me something interesting, even though I get more page views than the wife, her site is gaining a little more value. I am sure Google isn't the only one who thinks her page had more value than mine, but still.

Now why is her value higher than mine? It is location. Almost the entire time I have been running my ads, they have either been in the footer of the page way down there at the bottom, or the last item on the right/left bar. Both are terrible places and both are well below the fold. Gotta love newspaper terms applied to digital media, but it kind of translates to whether the reader has to scroll to see it. The more they have to scroll to see it, generally the worse it gets. The wife, while she also has a tiny one in her footer, also has one on the fold...or near the fold if you have a small screen. It is this on the fold one that is causing her page to have a greater value, even more so than the fact that she has two ads to my one. Also, technically having it on the left as opposed to the right helps a little to, but probably not enough in our cases to matter.

Now taking all this in, I have decided to do a little experiment. One, I added a near the fold add on my right bar. It is larger than hers, but the smaller ad block looked odd given the apparent size of where it being tucked into. But more significantly, I added an inline ad, just a line of text links, after the fifth post across all our pages. It isn't flashy, and it is well below the fold, so you have to scroll to see it.

Sorry, I had more to say here, but I got a phone call complaining about the addition of the new one line only link block and I have not been able to concentrate on it since. So I am just going to end this post here.

Ads?
Posted: 2009-11-24 06:31:07, by Joe (Dad-in-law)

So what gets you paid for your ads? Can you get an Amazon ad? Katie had one on her old page which I used fairly regularly. I bought Rook's DSi on it and Katie says she got a fair amount form that purchase. She doesn't have one on her new site. I notice your's change with every refresh.

Joe

re ADS?
Posted: 2009-11-24 06:38:32, by talam

Well, like I said, I didn't really add them to make money. We would need a larger audience visiting the page (think hits from wide range of ip addresses) to up our page impressions, and people actually clicking on links (again, from a wide range of ...).

The ads change with every refresh because google scans the page, pulls keywords, and tries to find relevant ads to show.

Amazon
Posted: 2009-11-24 21:03:07, by Joe (Dad-in-Law)

If we put amazon in our comments would it possibly put an ad for amazon in the ad block?

Joe

I doubt it
Posted: 2009-11-24 21:05:08, by talam

But I could actually go to amazon, grab the code for their affiliate program and put it up, but I never wanted to steal Katie's fire on it.

Face book
Posted: 2009-11-29 09:31:02, by Joe (Dad-in-Law)

Noticed that you reactivated your facebook. Searched for Ian Doyle and got lots of hits. Most I could tell weren't you. Two had possibilities. Both had no face and no friends.

Joe

Yup.
Posted: 2009-11-29 10:57:56, by talam

Going home for T-day and hearing everyone talk about how wonderful it was made me reactivate...still not convinced. But here is the link to me: http://www.facebook.com/pointless.happy I managed to snag a personal address before deactivating the last time.

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